Actor Tom Skerritt who played Reverend Maclean in the movie "A River Runs Through It" discussed his participation in the film project and his reflections on it 25 years later.
The panel presentation at The Wilma featured "The River Runs Through It" (L-R) Actor Tom Skerritt, Film Consultant Jean Maclean Snyder, Screenwriter Richard Friedenberg and Producer Patrick Markey.
The Kiwanis Club cooked breakfast for nearly 200 people on the grounds of the National Museum of Forest Service History. Post board exhibits highlighting milestones in the history of the Forest Service can be seen in the background.
Missoula author Annick Smith reads from "Headwaters: Montana Writers on Water and Wilderness." Smith hosted a panel featuring readings by some of the other authors who contributed to the collection of essays, poems and short stories. The readings, all related in some way to the Blackfoot River.
SEELEY LAKE – After two years of planning and organizing, the In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean Festival finally came to fruition Sept. 8-10. Sponsored by Alpine Artisans, Inc. (AAI) and spearheaded by AAI Program Director Jenny Rohrer, the event encompassed literature, fly fishing, pollution, wine tasting, fire, geology, breakfast, the United States Forest Service, a gala dinner, stories and memories. The theme running through it all was the Blackfoot River.
In 2015, the Maclean Festival highlighted Norman Maclean's novella "A River Runs Through It." The 2017 Festival highlighted the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie of the same name. Actor Tom Skerritt, who played Reverend Maclean in the film, Producer Patrick Markey and Screenwriter Richard Friedenberg were all present Sunday at The Wilma to celebrate and share their memories of the production. Norman Maclean's daughter Jean Maclean Snyder, who served as consultant on the film, was also present.
The audience was first treated to a video reading by the film's producer Robert Redford, who was unable to attend. Reading from the forward he wrote for the latest edition of "A River Runs Through It," Redford set the tone for the panel presentation. He spoke of the intricate process of convincing Maclean to allow his "very personal story" to be made into "a very public film."
Snyder continued that thread by reading from some of the correspondence between Redford and her father.
At one point, Maclean wrote to Redford: "I think of it less as a story than a love poem to my family, one that was so painful I thought I would never write it and I was not able to until nearly 40 years after it happened."
Snyder said in all those 40 years, her father never talked about his brother Paul or about his death.
Maclean and Redford also discussed the practical difficulties of converting the short novella into a two-hour movie. The book's dependence on the narrator, the near-poetry of the language, the death of the story's protagonist, the preponderance and detail of the fly fishing sections, these were not easily translatable to film.
Friedenberg, who spoke next expanded on those difficulties as he related the concerns he had when Redford asked him to be the screenwriter for the film.
After reading the novella he told Redford, "Gee Bob, I love the book, but I'm not sure I can do this." He said he and Redford "made a deal not to make a deal until I did some research."
Friedenberg said he came to Missoula, learned some tidbits and got some local color but nothing he could really fashion into a story. He then went to Chicago, and though Mclean was in poor health and unable to talk to him, Snyder and her husband stepped in to provide information and story after story about the Maclean family.
On the flight back, Friedenberg was going over all he had learned and, as he related it, "I suddenly had this rare moment of clarity in which I saw how I could make a movie story out of the book without destroying Norman's intentions.... You have this dynamic, this parallel. One brother rising, one brother falling. To me, that's a movie story."
His screenplay of the story garnered for Friedenberg an Oscar nomination.
The microphone was next passed to Markey who recalled Redford telling him about the project. Markey said, "I read the book, very quickly, and I was just so bowled over by the material."
A background of fishing with his grandfather, father and brothers made Markey easily able to relate to the fishing parts of the story. But he said the real draw for him was the familial part, the story about a family that loved each other so much but were still unable to communicate their real feelings to one another.
Markey said, "The heartbreaking quality of that is so classically structured and is also something all of us know. We all come from families, we all have relationships, we're all different. But there's a kind of universality in the way Norman presented that... In telling it very specifically as he did, we all get to take things away from it that mean something to us."
Skerrit was the last of the panel members to speak and he first thanked Friedenberg for the script which he called "one of the rarest that I have come across in fifty years." He also said, "I am as moved now when I see this film as I ever was" and he ended by calling his participation in the film "the most meaningful thing I have ever done."
Other events throughout the three-day festival featured a number of speakers and presenters, some made famous by their connection with Norman Maclean or the Blackfoot River or both. Threatened by fire and smoked out of Seeley Lake, the festival moved most of its Sept. 8-9 program sessions from the Double Arrow Lodge to the First Presbyterian Church in Missoula. This was the church where Reverend Norman Maclean preached for 16 years.
Montana's Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney and Missoula's Mayor John Engen gave short addresses. Literary notables offered new insights on Maclean's writings. Several contributors to the short story compilation "Headwaters" read selections which expressed their feelings, memories, concerns or inspirations connected to the Blackfoot River. Other sessions included a tour and explanation of the geology of the Blackfoot valley, a guided tour of Maclean's Seeley Lake neighborhood, and a slide show presentation (in lieu of a tour) that identified probable Blackfoot River locations described in Maclean's novella.
Food had its part in the festivities. A lavish dinner on the banks of the Blackfoot River included a retrospective on the first conservation easement established in Montana. Saturday evening offered a wine tasting and a chance to converse with fellow festival attendees from throughout the state and beyond.
Sunday morning's chuckwagon breakfast brought a reflection by Maclean's son John and Bud Moore's son Bill on their families' interactions with the U.S. Forest Service and some of the attitudes and policy changes the two have noted through the years. The breakfast event also afforded attendees a chance to explore the newly established National Museum of Forest Service History.
The In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean Festival concluded Sunday evening with eight storytellers sharing personal stories about the Blackfoot River.
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